"To the beat of a different drum": Improving the social and mental wellbeing of at-risk young people through drumming

Purpose: There is growing interest in the use of music and other arts mediums as a way of addressing mental health and social wellbeing issues in a non-clinical or therapy setting. This can be particularly apt for more at-risk young people who may not engage readily with other approaches. Published...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wood, L., Ivery, P., Donovan, Robert, Lambin, E.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2013
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48101
_version_ 1848758018102001664
author Wood, L.
Ivery, P.
Donovan, Robert
Lambin, E.
author_facet Wood, L.
Ivery, P.
Donovan, Robert
Lambin, E.
author_sort Wood, L.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Purpose: There is growing interest in the use of music and other arts mediums as a way of addressing mental health and social wellbeing issues in a non-clinical or therapy setting. This can be particularly apt for more at-risk young people who may not engage readily with other approaches. Published evaluation of such interventions is however sparse. This paper aims to describe an evaluation of the DRUMBEAT program which uses drumming as a way to engage at-risk youth, whilst simultaneously incorporating themes relating to mental wellbeing and healthy relationships. Design/methodology/approach: An evaluation was undertaken in 19 schools participating in the ten-week DRUMBEAT program. Pre, interim and post-program surveys were administered to participating students (n=180). School-based data on student behaviour and teacher feedback was also collected. Findings: Positive changes were observed on several measures, including a 10 per cent increase in self-esteem scores by program completion. School data showed a decrease in reported behaviour incidents for 29 per cent of participants. Overall, the evaluation indicated that the DRUMBEAT program provides a creative medium for working with at-risk young people and helps develop self-esteem and social relationship skills. Originality/value: There is a paucity of published evaluations of interventions of this kind. Also novel is the delivery of the program in a school-based rather than clinical therapy setting. The paper also demonstrates how a "real world" intervention program can go beyond basic process evaluation to collect outcome data that helps build the evidence base for mental health promotion. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T09:37:19Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-48101
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:37:19Z
publishDate 2013
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-481012017-09-13T14:20:15Z "To the beat of a different drum": Improving the social and mental wellbeing of at-risk young people through drumming Wood, L. Ivery, P. Donovan, Robert Lambin, E. Purpose: There is growing interest in the use of music and other arts mediums as a way of addressing mental health and social wellbeing issues in a non-clinical or therapy setting. This can be particularly apt for more at-risk young people who may not engage readily with other approaches. Published evaluation of such interventions is however sparse. This paper aims to describe an evaluation of the DRUMBEAT program which uses drumming as a way to engage at-risk youth, whilst simultaneously incorporating themes relating to mental wellbeing and healthy relationships. Design/methodology/approach: An evaluation was undertaken in 19 schools participating in the ten-week DRUMBEAT program. Pre, interim and post-program surveys were administered to participating students (n=180). School-based data on student behaviour and teacher feedback was also collected. Findings: Positive changes were observed on several measures, including a 10 per cent increase in self-esteem scores by program completion. School data showed a decrease in reported behaviour incidents for 29 per cent of participants. Overall, the evaluation indicated that the DRUMBEAT program provides a creative medium for working with at-risk young people and helps develop self-esteem and social relationship skills. Originality/value: There is a paucity of published evaluations of interventions of this kind. Also novel is the delivery of the program in a school-based rather than clinical therapy setting. The paper also demonstrates how a "real world" intervention program can go beyond basic process evaluation to collect outcome data that helps build the evidence base for mental health promotion. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48101 10.1108/JPMH-09-2012-0002 restricted
spellingShingle Wood, L.
Ivery, P.
Donovan, Robert
Lambin, E.
"To the beat of a different drum": Improving the social and mental wellbeing of at-risk young people through drumming
title "To the beat of a different drum": Improving the social and mental wellbeing of at-risk young people through drumming
title_full "To the beat of a different drum": Improving the social and mental wellbeing of at-risk young people through drumming
title_fullStr "To the beat of a different drum": Improving the social and mental wellbeing of at-risk young people through drumming
title_full_unstemmed "To the beat of a different drum": Improving the social and mental wellbeing of at-risk young people through drumming
title_short "To the beat of a different drum": Improving the social and mental wellbeing of at-risk young people through drumming
title_sort "to the beat of a different drum": improving the social and mental wellbeing of at-risk young people through drumming
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48101